Marie Kelliher

I live in a rural environment and am fascinated by nature in all its varying seasons and colours.
My approach to painting is abstract but rooted in nature -- forests, sea and lakes, moorland, natural vegetation as opposed to the cultivated variety, and places off the beaten path. The sea, which was part of my childhood environment, plays a large part in my paintings and expresses itself through colour, texture and movement.
All my paintings are the end of a process and are multi-layered, adding or removing parts of each layer to convey my ideas.
I mainly paint with large brushes, palette knife and sponges. Sometimes I use leaves, twigs and mosses which I collect while exploring the landscape.
Colour, movement and composition are of paramount importance to me and I like to capture the essence of a place in a non-representational way.
I have worked extensively with watercolour and oil as well as screen printing, but acrylic and mixed media (gels, inks, oil pastels to name a few) suit my painting style as they allow the necessary changes which sometimes have to be made for my multi-layered process.

I studied art history and painting to degree level and graduated with a BA (Honours) in Creative Arts

Bankside Gallery, London; Killarney Library, Co Kerry, Ireland; Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Killarney, Co Kerry, Ireland; Frank Lewis Gallery, Killarney, Co Kerry, Ireland; Tralee Library, Co Kerry, Ireland; Siamsa Tire, Tralee, Co Kerry, Ireland; Samhlaiocht Gallery, Tralee, Co Kerry, Ireland